Shower-bath



EPHRAIM LARRABEE, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

SHOWER-BATH.

Specification of Letters Patent No'. 5,993, dated January 2,k 1849.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, EPHRAIM LAKE/AREE, of thecity of Baltimore, in t-he State of Maryland, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in p the Construction of Shower-Baths, whichImproved Bath is Styled by Me The Niagara Bath; and I do hereby declarethat the following is a full and exact description of the constructionand operation thereof, reference being had to the annexed dra-wings,making a part of this specification, in which l Figure 1, is aperspective view ofthe apparatus tted up in a case resembling awardrobe, being the forni usually adopted for the casing of showerbaths. Fig. Q, is a vertical cross section through the front and back ofthe case. Fig. 3, is a front elevation -of the apparatus, drawn to ascale of one quarter of an inch to the inch, and Fig. 4, is the plan orground view of the same.

The same letters are used to designate the same parts in all thefigures.

a is a reservoir for holding the water for the bath, beneath whichIthere is another smaller chamber Z) with which'it communi- Cates by thevalve c which valve opens upward and closes downward and is operated bythe lever d on pulling the wire or cord f.

Proceeding downward from the sub1-eservoir or chamber o, are four tubesg, g, g, g, which are furnished with stop cocks an connect with thehorizontal discharging tubes h, L, L, h, these discharging tubes areconnected together by short pieces at their ends so as to form an oblongoctagon as shown in Fig. Ll, but they are stopped up at the place ofjoining so as to prevent the water passing from one tube to the others.These discharging pipes have a row of holes along their inner sides anddirected slightly upward, the water passing through there is of courseconveyed or thrown directly toward the center of the bath. The space inthe clear of the said pipes being suiiiciently large to admit the headof the bather, the water can be directed so as to strike about the topof the shoulders and leave the head dry, but if it be desirable toshower on the ,head all that is necessary in that case is to raise theapparatus about nine inches higher and the object will be attained.Again, when it is desirable that the water shall not fall on the back,the breast or on either sid-e of the bather, it can be `turned oi fromthe dischargingpipe on that particular side by the stop Vcock whichbelongs to it. i Y l L,

To enable the water to pass freely throughl the valve yc withoutinterruption from the air which the subchamber b previously containedescaping through the same opening I have introducedy the air tube 7cwhich comsoy municates freely with the upper part of the subchamber band reaches to the top of the upper reservoir (Z and through this tubethe air escapes on the water being admitted through the valve c into thesubchamber Z).- yThe apparatus'is made to bey movable in the case inwhich it is set up by means of 'the two guide rods m m, m m, which rodsare firmly secured kto the top and bottom parts of the case and areparallel and' out of winding with each other. Theapparatus is suspendedby cords attached to the hooks 0,0, Fig. 3, and passing over the sheavesp 79 Fig. 2, thence downward to the hooks or pins g, r, s, t, if the pinor hook g is used, i

the apparatus will be in its highest position and will discharge thewater on the top of the head in much the same manner as a common showerbathbut if the pin or hook r, is used the water will be discharged uponthe shoulders and downward, permitting the head to remain dry. The pinsor hooks r, s, &c., are put into th-e same case so as to suit thevarious heights'of different indi viduals. These loo-ps Von the cordsserve also another important purpose, for by stopping against theobstacle o, placed near one of the sheaves p, Fig. 2, the apparatusdescends to and is retained at a convenient place fo-r pouring the waterintended for the bath into the reservoir 2. Attached to` the loops onthe said cords are two small weights sokk one of nwhich is seen at wFig. 2, whichto i gether about equal the weight lof the appav reasonalso warm water can be used, which would be altogether inadmissible ifit fell directly on the head; it can therefore be ein-v ployed in manycases as a desirable remedial m Y v agent Where the common bath couldnot apconsidered suficient to enableany competent person to construct oruse shower baths on this principle.

Having thus described the nature, construction and operation of theshower bath as improved by me, I will novv point out what I consider andclaim as my invention p therein and desire to secure by LettersPatent.

I do riot Claim the jet bath, neither do i claim the movable reservoir,both having 20 been used separately before, but

VI do claim and desire to secure- The combination cfa, movable reservoirWith a jet bath constructed as herein clelscribed.V This combination Ibelieve to be 25 new and useful and tohave been made for the first timeby myself.V

v EPI-IM.` LARRABEE.

IVitnesses: I. M. LARRABEE,

W. M. OLDHAiM.

